ByWITH ANALYSIS FROM MONITOR CORRESPONDENTS AROUND THE WORLDEDITED BY RANDY SHIPPAugust 5, 1980

Castries, St. Lucia
— Hurricane Allen, with 135 mile per hour winds, swept across the Lesser Antilles Monday and headed into the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, gathering strength but posing no immediate threat to land.

The first storm of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season destroyed banana crops, wrecked homes, and knocked out electric and telephone service here after battering the resort island of Barbados in its slash through the Lesser Antilles.

The storm was moving slightly north of due west about 20 m.p.h., but a slight turn toward a west-northwesterly direction and a decrease in forward speed is anticipated.